Diehard Webcomic Fans Invent Fake Anime

If you aren't familiar with web series MS Paint Adventures - in particular its latest installment, Homestuck - then know this: The Homestuck fandom is second only to fans of Japanese shooter series Touhou Project as the craziest and most devoted fandom on the internet. Case in point: When series creator Andrew Hussie announced that he would be taking a temporary hiatus from the comic in order to prepare for San Diego Comic-Con, the fans erupted in a flurry of creation.

Specifically, they created their own anime.

Now, that's a bit of a misnomer: The fans haven't actually animated anything outside of a fewanimated.gifs. What they have created, however, is an overwhelming pretense that the story they love isn't a webcomic made by some dude from Boston, but a manga/anime series out of Japan - replete with a bunch of fake screenshots. We've gathered some of our favorites here.

What's impressive here is the commitment to verisimilitude. No, no such Homestuck anime exists, but the "screenshots" have appropriate subtitles, and the style and character expressions look authentic. Some of them even add the subtle watermarks of the various Japanese TV networks (or the YouTube UI for all of those who stream their anime online). Hell, some of the screens even have the compression/quality issues that anyone familiar with watching bootleg anime VHS tapes in the '90s might recognize.

All in all, the focus on creating actual believable screenshots or manga pages (terrible anatomy issues included) is what sets this fan project apart from mere fan art. Fans without artistic talent have also made fake Wikipedia articles referencing the nonexistent series.

CJ1145:[quote="(whitty name here)" post="7.381116.15005558"]Also, like 90% of our characters are borderline gods so they can kick your characters' ass.

-snip-

Somehow I get the feeling you haven't read homestuck. Until you do, I would recommend you refrain from trying to say one set of characters is stronger. (note that i do not say that homestuck's characters are stronger as I am not familiar with Touhou.)

I've read a little bit, but obviously I need to read further. If someone can outdo someone who can bend the very fabric of reality to their will at a mere thought, Homestuck must have quite a few badasses.

Radoh:That's...really impressive.I've avoided that webcomic because I already keep up with more than enough of them, but with this? I'm pretty sure I need to look into this now out of sheer obligation to their fandom.

Trust me,you won't regret it. I starte off my accidentally finding Problem Sleuth by looking for choose your own adventure stories. That is worth a look as well. Also, needs more Dave and Equaris.

I mean, just Yukari Yakumo would be enough to completely break anyone. Being able to change the 'barriers' of anything in existence at will and to an unlimited extent is too completely broken for anyone to compare to.

Your character is physically stronger? Changes the barriers between strength and weakness, now your character is weak as a newborn. Hell, in the game she debuted in, she changed the borders of life and death and the spirits began to wreak havoc on the world. All because her ghost friend asked her to. She doesn't even have to channel it. She immediately went back to sleep after it was changed. She can do this for anything anyone anywhere at any time. The only reason things aren't to her exact specifications is because she's doesn't give half a damn as well as sleeps most of the time.

It has nothing to do with what character they're up against, Touhou characters are just too broken to compete with anything other than other Touhou characters, save for the low level Youkai of the games. Any character with a decent significance in their universe is completely bullshit in come way.

Somehow I get the feeling you haven't read homestuck. Until you do, I would recommend you refrain from trying to say one set of characters is stronger. (note that i do not say that homestuck's characters are stronger as I am not familiar with Touhou.)

I mean, just Yukari Yakumo would be enough to completely break anyone. Being able to change the 'barriers' of anything in existence at will and to an unlimited extent is too completely broken for anyone to compare to.

Your character is physically stronger? Changes the barriers between strength and weakness, now your character is weak as a newborn. Hell, in the game she debuted in, she changed the borders of life and death and the spirits began to wreak havoc on the world. All because her ghost friend asked her to. She doesn't even have to channel it. She immediately went back to sleep after it was changed. She can do this for anything anyone anywhere at any time. The only reason things aren't to her exact specifications is because she's doesn't give half a damn as well as sleeps most of the time.

It has nothing to do with what character they're up against, Touhou characters are just too broken to compete with anything other than other Touhou characters, save for the low level Youkai of the games. Any character with a decent significance in their universe is completely bullshit in come way.

mew4ever23:Who's to say this is fake? Perhaps the fans have actually gotten together to work on making an anime of Touhou themselves?

This is welcomed and praised by everyone, yet if one person makes a Pony thread its all "HELLFIRE AND BRIMSTONE MOTHER FUCKERS!" and "Fucking losers".

I am so confused by what the Escapist deems "right" and "wrong".

It's not welcomed and praised by me, that's for damn sure! I think it has to do with the sites one frequents besides the Escapist. Tumblr, for instance, isn't as inundated by ponies (I'm sure someone will jump on me for that, but whatever). It IS inundated by Homestuck. Youtube is becoming filled to bursting with those damn ponies and more people frequent it (your "internet everyman") and so besides the Pony fandom itself (I refuse to use their invented word) they're pretty much universally reviled.

Keep in mind, this is all just my opinions and estimations.

On topic... is this news? DeviantArt, for instance, is filled with fake Anime screenshots. Sure they didn't all show up overnight like a lot of these, but nerd artists have figured out how to match that anime look and feel (with subtitles and all) LONG, long ago. It's almost like an internet rule all by itself; "if it exists, someone has probably made a fake anime screenshot of it".